What an incredible Spring this has been

It's so hard to believe how quickly this year is going so far. The boys are nearly done with school, Tom will graduate from 8th grade in three weeks, and we're getting our final plans together for our beach trip to North Carolina. With everything going on, I had to push out my plans for the Half Marathon I was going to do last weekend. My training was just too tough to keep going, between the boys activities and Chad's new job he started earlier this year. So I'm just going to focus on some of the other races I'm planning to do, and have been able to participate in a couple of 5Ks already since the Shamrock Shuffle.

This past Saturday I participated in the Bridge To Bridge 5K in Batavia. This race was the first 5K I ever did, last May. Oh, what a difference a year makes! Last year, my goal was to finish with a time under 40 minutes - I came in at 39:59...just barely squeaked that in. When I ran it this year, I could remember exactly where I stopped running after the initial start. Let's just say it was pretty darn quick ;). But I was just so happy to finish a 5K back then.

Fast forward to this year - I almost didn't sign up for this one. But after the great 5K I had in DeKalb at NIU (finished in 30:06), and looking at the results from last year, I thought "hey, I might actually have a shot at finishing pretty nicely for my age group". So I signed up and went yesterday.

It was kind of funny - the weather was almost exactly the same as it was a year ago. Although this time instead of it raining before the race, it rained during the race. Luckily it wasn't too bad, and the trees covered a lot of the trail. But Lord....the humidity was AWFUL!! It's been several months since I have to deal with that, and let's just say I haven't missed it. But I pushed through the oppressive air, and ran the whole thing. My finish time was 31:51 - over 8 minutes faster than last year!! I hadn't gone as fast as I had hoped, but it was fast enough to get this:

Third place finish for my age group! I never, ever thought that would happen. Hell, 18 months ago I also never imagined I would be a runner and lose 60+ lbs. Funny how these things happen ... Of course, I was upstaged by Matt and Nathan running the youth mile - Matt ran the whole mile in about 8:24, and Nathan pulled off a 1st place finish with a time of 7:06:

One of the other things that has made this Spring so wonderful is I've gotten to know an incredible woman I'm honored to call my friend. Michelle Dragoo and I have been friends on Facebook for awhile now, and finally had a chance to meet up this past Wednesday for a run. She is amazing! She's been training for a Half marathon, while working full-time and taking care of her family. I'm so thrilled we were able to log some miles together, and then met up again Saturday night for a girl's night out and another run today. It was wonderful to find out how much we have in common!

So as I wrap up this very long-winded post-Mother's Day blog, I just want to thank everyone out there who has supported me (and my family in turn) through the last year. There is no way I could have done this without everyone cheering me on!